The Federal Aviation Administration has promulgated regulatory changes that result in the need for more stringent smoke detection capability and cooling system power control capability for cooling systems installed in commercial aircraft. Such smoke detection and cooling power control systems typically provide smoke detection and cooling for a variety of electronic units, including, but not limited to, operations, communication and entertainment units. Exemplary electronic units for communication systems and connection to the World Wide Web via the Internet are provided in the Connection By BoeingsSM system. Newly installed systems are required to provide smoke and cooling system detection and controls to prevent propagation of smoke from any of the cooling systems to any other compartment of the aircraft. The systems are also required to meet specific electronic system power control requirements.
For at least newly installed equipment, it is required that cooling systems be shut down upon the detection of a smoke event, to prevent smoke from one compartment from being transferred to one or more other compartments of the aircraft. A smoke event is defined herein as either the actual presence of smoke identified by an alarmed condition of one or more smoke detectors, or a falsely alarming smoke detector. It is also necessary to identify if a cooling system fault exists, defined herein as a locked cooling fan rotor, reduced cooling flow from a reduced fan rotation speed (below a predetermined speed criteria known in the art), or a cooling system overheat condition, as attempts to restart a locked or overheated cooling fan can increase the risk of a fire.
These smoke detection and cooling requirements can be met through development of controllers containing the necessary logic to perform smart controller functions. The cost and time to produce such controllers, however, can be prohibitive and may not support cost targets and delivery requirements for rapid turnaround, commercial aircraft installations. Therefore, a need exists for a system and a method to meet aircraft smoke detection and cooling power control system requirements without the cost and time required to develop an electronic unit capable of performing smart controller functions.